Then, after a career in libraries, Moore, at the age of 46, made the kind of leap that is rare for people of her age. She left the university and began her own business, Net Results, LLC.
COMPUTER BUSINESS BLOOMS FOR BOOMER
by Tom Tobin
Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, New York
June 29, 2010
When Barbara Moore of Penfield stands up to address her local audiences on the intricacies of the Internet, on the many byways of social media, on the business value of an active Twitter account, a little, silent wave of surprise runs through the gathering.
Are we in the right meeting? Where is the young instructor ready and able to impart computer wisdom? Is this that person's mother? And, if so, can she know anything at all about the vast cyber-province of the young?
Turns out she does know. A lot.
Being 60, as Barbara Moore is, means that she brings years of experience to computer instruction and repair, going back to the days when users employed stacks of key-punch cards and arcane languages like Fortran.
As a librarian at the University of Rochester with a special interest in and knowledge of technology, Moore worked with the Internet — which developed primarily in academic settings, after all — in the late 1980s and early 1990s, well before most people knew what it was.
"At that time using the Internet required a very exact set of requirements," Moore said. "The professors needed to be trained in its use. It was my luck that I was able to work with the system for several years before the general public did."
Moore, who had studied library science at the University of Wisconsin and worked for a time at the Monroe County library system, then moved to the University of Rochester. It was there, she said, that her early interest in the computer science of library work — she worked on the early automated check-in systems — was deepened.
"It was really what I wanted," Moore said. "I wasn't the kind of librarian who sat at a reference desk. I was always more interested in the technological side."
Then, after a career in libraries, Moore, at the age of 46, made the kind of leap that is rare for people of her age. She left the university and began her own business, Net Results LLC, which she operates out of her home.
"It took a lot of soul-searching," she said. "I was getting into something that attracts primarily young people and males. At events I would attend I was often the only female."
Despite the obstacles, the small business has been forging ahead for nearly 15 years. Moore provides both home and office instruction on computer use, troubleshoots computer problems and holds classes around town on such topics as the Web and social networking.
"I still know many of the library directors around the community and I regularly hold sessions at local libraries. I work with school librarians to help them get up to speed on such things as Facebook," Moore said.
She is an unabashed fan of social media, and for reasons that most librarians should appreciate. Like the world of books, social networking sites like Facebook bring people together. Much as a good novel spans social divides, Facebook and Twitter do the same — and at warp speed.
Moore's enthusiasm for this newness comes across to her audiences. Age differences — and attitudes — melt away as she navigates, with vigor, the world of the Web.
In a recent session at the Henrietta Public Library, Moore disarmed the audience with funny remarks about her age — and further disarmed them with a reference to her one team member, who sat near the back.
It's her mother, June. She's 91. And, yes, she knows her way around the Web.
Net Results, LLC
Rochester, New York
585.748.1850
bmoore@NetResultsUSA.com
www.linkedin.com/in/barbaramooreny